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Hail, floods in 2010 lead to foreclosure of Oklahoma City office park

Lincoln Plaza Office Park, owned by a California investor with longtime property interests in Oklahoma City, never could recover from damage from a massive hailstorm, then heavy rains and flooding, in spring and summer 2010.

Lincoln Plaza Office Park, 4545 N Lincoln, was among thousands of commercial buildings and homes severely damaged in an extraordinary hailstorm May 16, 2010. Hail wrecked the flat roof. The next month, heavy rains caused flooding that so thoroughly damaged the 270,000-square-foot property that tenants could not conduct business and started vacating.

Tenants forced to leave included the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which was leasing some 150,000 square feet, more than half the space. Many other tenants also were state agencies invoking a 30-day opt-out clause in all state office lease agreements.

The owner, Dr. Vinod Gupta, a California cardiologist and 20-year-plus real estate investor in Oklahoma City, found himself in trouble with his lender, an entity of Wells Fargo.

With income cut to a fraction of what it was before the storms, the value of Lincoln Plaza Office Park collapsed, and Gupta's Lincoln Plaza Office Building LLC owed the lender more than the property was worth.

Gupta started trying to work out a refinance of a $7 million note. With the roof repaired and interior cleaned up but not rebuilt, he started trying to market the space to new tenants and gain back old ones.

A year ago, he openly wooed the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, promising to make the agency the anchor of Lincoln Plaza Office Park, with exclusive signage rights and other extras.